Surrealistic Pillow - my impression, your impression

[Rüdi]

Hi freaks ,

At last I got my Surrealistic Pillow - CD (RCA 2003) and listen to it for the first time in my live. (BTW: funny, to listen to a music, that is 40 years old for the first time).

Oh my dear , it sounds like a complete different band to me .

By now, I only listen to some live stuff (Monterey, Blessed, Sweeping, Woodstock) and I hardly can believe.
All is so slow, and so nice and lovely arranged. Casadys bass is hardly to hear, the electric guitar is very shy, much of accoustic instrument (guitar, flute?, tambourine, harmonica? a.s.o.)
Marty sounds like a school-band teenager, even Grace sounds like a honest chorus-girl.
Only in "Somebody to love" and "White rabbit" one can surmise, how her voice is getting later. In some songs her voice is only very gently and silent in the background (with some reverb?).
Spencer nearly only does "pitch" at the hiat and "patch" on the snare. No shuffle

Some songs (f.e. "My best friend", "How do you feel") sounds very close to the Mamas and Papas (Monday, Monday).

The accoustic guitar instrumental song "Embryonic Journey" is an interesting song.

It´s exciting to hear, how this band developed, but I think, I prefer the later (67-69) or the live stuff.

For my opinion, and to what I listen to by now, the sound I most prefer is the woodstock-gig ("Saturday" is great there, better than any other version I know). Unfortunatly there is no complete live-recording of the woodstock-gig ?

Let´s see, what I think, when I first listen to the other studio-albums (Volunteers will be my next)...

See You
Rüdi

[Indian Summer]

Great you like it

'Volunteers' is a different record, much more 'county-like' and loose.
The only thing that both albums have in common is the relaxed atmosphere.
'Baxter's' is more intense and creative, while 'Crown Of Creation' sounds mellow, but angry in other places.

Have you ever listened to 'Takes Off'?
I'm a big fan of that record and you can hear how the band would develope in the direction of 'Surrealistic Pillow'.

[MicksPulloutCouch]

Pillow was my first Jefferson Airplane album. Man, that feels like forever ago...

But, I agree.
You should try Takes Off.
That's a great one.
:]

[betsebee]

Pillow was my first Jefferson Airplane album.
:]

Mine too. By the way, I just bought an LP of 1970 After Bathing At Baxter.
I think it's more nice to listen LP than a CD

[pandalove]

Pillow... good album but not my favorite. I like my airplane heavy and the whole thing was just so floaty and friendly sounding. I do like the songs, I just felt like the whole thing was too echo-y and (as i believe Rudi said) eerily similar to the mamas and the papas(who i like in small doses).
Volunteers is better on the whole...

[skywise]

y'know i can't remember the last time i listened to Pillow, that's so embarassing for an airplanophile to admit!

it's probably because i've listened to the songs so many times before, familiary and all that..

It's not my favourite Airplane album (that would be "crown of creation") but you can see where they're going after "Takes Off.." though I'm not sure anyone outside of the Bay area would have expected them to go into the full-on weird-fest that was "Baxter's" immediately after what was, let's face it, a fairly pop-oriented, AM-Friendly album like "Pillow".

Where "Baxter's" is more explicit in it's psychedelia, "Pillow's" is more subtle, tracks like DCBA-25 and even, if looked at on a completely literal level, White Rabbit, you could miss the message going on there..you might actually think it's just a song about Alice in Wonderland I guess. heh.

So yeah, not my favourite Airplane album, but it's all part of the ongoing narrative so it has a special place pretty much all of it's own really.

[DonRico1967]

I will chime in and add that there is A LOT of good stuff to be found on the widely-dismissed final studio LP's from 1971 and 1972 respectively:

BARK

LONG JOHN SILVER

I mean, Marty and Spencer are certainly missed, and the band were a messed-up bunch of coked-out "rock stars" by that era...

But to me at least-- The songs (most of them) still hold up just as strong as the early-period material...

Grace was as radical as she had ever been, and Paul was expanding upon his science-fiction allegories and historical themes... Jack and Jorma were still rockin' balls / ass... And Papa John playin' a mean git-fiddle, too...

So yeah... I dig the later stuff as much as the early records...

Maybe that's just me...

[Rüdi]

Yes, I listen the whole weekend to my new Surr. Pillow-CD .
And it sounds really more like the early friendly west-coast folk.
For the lovelier songs for example like "Somebody to love", "My best friend", "How do you feel" "Go to her" , I think, it is nice, even because of the more acoustic instruments.
Especially those short funny organ(?) tones there with the first "...to be lies" (in Somebody to love) are tremendous. Pity, they doesn´t comes oftener.

For me, here is the typical early west-coast-sound created:
lucky, innocent, hopeful and in a nice way also a little bit simple hearted and sentimental.

But the more rocky song, like "3/5 of a mile"or "white rabbit", comes better, when playing harder, like on the live-recordings.

[timbryonic journey]

my favorite Jefferson Airplane album is After Bathing At Baxters. Just the sound of it is so damn psychedellic.....beautiful. what a trip to listen to when you are in the appropriate state of mind.

[js9]

can anyone tell me what the original 1967 Surrealistic Pillow vinyl is worth today?

i

[JoeD80]

All is so slow, and so nice and lovely arranged. Casadys bass is hardly to hear, the electric guitar is very shy, much of accoustic instrument (guitar, flute?, tambourine, harmonica? a.s.o.)
Only in "Somebody to love" and "White rabbit" one can surmise, how her voice is getting later. In some songs her voice is only very gently and silent in the background (with some reverb?).

Spencer nearly only does "pitch" at the hiat and "patch" on the snare. No shuffle

Jack, Grace, and Spencer all sound great on "She Has Funny Cars" IMO.

For my opinion, and to what I listen to by now, the sound I most prefer is the woodstock-gig ("Saturday" is great there, better than any other version I know). Unfortunatly there is no complete live-recording of the woodstock-gig ?

I think it was in Jeff Tamarkin's book about the Airplane, that the band mentioned they didn't want their Woodstock gig released because they felt it wasn't one of ther best performances. They weren't even in the original release of the movie! The live album that was released just last year, Sweeping Up the Spotlight, has some good performances from the same period around 1969 [recorded at the Fillmore].

[Lilla]

Surrealistic Pillow isn't my favourite Airplane album. But the whole album has such a feeling, that it fantastic...it has a typical sound of 1967 (although the album was made in late 1966). So the feeling is unique.
My favourite Airplane album would be Crown of Creation. Very melancholic sometimes, mellow, creepy...I love it. Then Volunteers. I think musically is Volunteers the best album, the band was in the best form in 1969.

[psychhead]

Hi Lilla...it's my fave album too...the first JA album I bought

[goodshepherd90]

I don't think anyone could consider themselves to be true Jefferson Airplane fans until they listen to Surrealistic Pillow so many times they get sick of it. I know that's what forced me to take a deeper look at what else the band had to offer. Not my favorite Ariplane album but not one you would want to be with out. Thirty Seconds Over Winterland, Bark and Long John Silver would be my favorites.

[psychhead]

Who agrees with that Surrealistic Pillow is JA's most psychedelic album?!